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From the Field: In Between Onions & Books [Day 3]

The third day of this adventure was a long one. Full to the brim with all the waiting and patience that is typical of life in Guatemala. From here to there and then wait a while.

To this rhythm we passed a day in Concepcion, Reading Village’s first community and a huge source of pride. It’s scholars are our reason to be, it’s graduates are our tipping point, it’s children are our future. From the cobblestone and across the fields, from onions to maize and up the chapel steps, a picture of survival was painted with intense clarity.

It’s a plate of brown food in a lush green caldera. It’s bright orange paint on grey cement. It’s a library between corner stores. It’s books and students where there were once only pipe dreams and soot. Over the course of a few short hours that felt so full, step by step our assumptions were shattered, resiliency was realized, and connections – to the earth, to the scholars, to each other – were made anew. And in the space left by this growth, new questions bubbled up from the depths:

What is enough of our life to give?

I can’t know the answers and can only imagine what we will be left asking tomorrow, but for tonight the fight is over and the hope is in this kid’s eyes. Of that much I am sure.